


Gifts

by Raven_Ehtar



Series: All STARS' Fault [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, Developing Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, FrostIron - Freeform, Guilt, Light Angst, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Love Confessions, M/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Pining Loki (Marvel), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-27 00:18:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18727798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Ehtar/pseuds/Raven_Ehtar
Summary: Loki keeps throwing gifts at Tony, and insisting that they don't mean anything. Is it a test? A riddle? A weird courtship thing? Or is it something more than any of those things?





	Gifts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [STARSdidathing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/STARSdidathing/gifts).



> Story number 5 for Story a Day May!
> 
> So this one isn't a continuation of a drabble, but a sort of expansion of a [drabble](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12058869/chapters/29326368). Once again, [STARSdidathing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/STARSdidathing) was the one to start up the conversation which led to this fic idea, so again, she's getting all the credit and blame for it. XD (There's going to be a lot of these, so be prepared. ♥)
> 
> Still working on writing and editing at a sprinting pace. If you spot any errors, feel free to point them out, I'll get them fixed when I have a chance! ♥

“Anthony. Here, take this.”

_“Oof.”_

Tony looked down at the object which had just been rather unceremoniously shoved into his arms – and his stomach, such was the force with which it had been given. It was, at first glance at least, a box about two feet long, one foot deep and the same in height. It was made out of some type of wood he couldn’t immediately identify, though given how heavy the damn thing was, it was either a hardwood _or_ the box was full of something.

Tony was less interested in opening it to figure that out than he was in simply examining the box itself. It was carved with intricate designs – coiling, abstract patterns which by turns appeared to resolve itself into animals and scenes, or was simply a mess of interlocking strands. Occasionally, where the carving was particularly deeply set into the wood, there were inlays of metal, embedded so seamlessly into the wood that it looked as though it had simply grown there.

It was beautiful, it was _heavy_ , it even smelled good… and it was completely unexpected.

Tony looked up, raising his eyebrows at Loki, the one who had decided that his arms had looked entirely too empty. “Thanks, I think. You, uh. You know that my birthday was last month, right?”

Loki, who looked as though he were trying to appear as though he were at ease – and failing spectacularly – rolled his eyes. “I could hardly forget it, given the party you threw in order to commemorate the event.”

“Okay, then… what’s this for? Do Asgardian birthday celebrations go on for more than a day? This isn’t the only thing you’ve shoved at me lately.”

“If anything, the celebration of birthdays on Asgard is significantly shorter than the typical on this planet.” He looked off to a side, as though he were bored. “This is… just because I felt like giving it to you.”

 _Lies,_ Tony thought to himself, but didn't say so. He knew that Loki was actually making an effort to lie less – or at least to be a bit choosier about where, when, and with whom he decided _to_ lie. He was a little sensitive about it, really, so it probably wouldn't do to call him out on something so small.

He looked at the box again. “Okay… So is it special in some way? Is there something alive in here I should be worried about letting loose?”

“No, Stark,” Loki said with a sigh. “It is just a box.”

And he walked off, Tony staring after him.

Tony would admit that he was puzzled. More than puzzled, he was downright perplexed and heading quickly into the realm of utter confusion. This seemed to be a strange new habit Loki had picked up, shoving random objects at Tony as gifts. He never called them gifts, though, oh no. Just things he thought Tony would like, or things he was getting rid of anyway, or things which made him think of Tony, or which he just ‘felt like giving him,’ such as with this latest not-gift. It wasn't as though Tony didn't appreciate the gesture, whatever the underlying reason for it might be. His go-to method for expressing himself to other people tended to be in gift giving as well, sometimes to awful or hilarious results. He could understand if Loki were just trying to… communicate in some way and had defaulted to this method to do so.

Assuming of course, that was what it was. Assuming that giving people things was a way for Loki to communicate in a way which didn't involve having to speak, come into contact with or even be in company with the other person for very long. It _could_ be something else. It might be a strange sort of riddle Tony was meant to solve – he had even thought that was what it was for a while. If it were a riddle, though, it had proved too much for his reasoning skills. There was no connection or message he could discern from the random collection Tony was slowly accumulating. In the same way, it didn't appear to be a coded message, and he didn't _think_ that this habit was ubiquitous amongst Asgardians in general. Certainly Thor had never acted like this, with Tony or anyone else.

Which was another point – Loki was only doing this with _him_. With every other person on the team, he acted completely normally. Which was to say, he mostly ignored them.

Which led Tony to wonder: Was this some weird Asgardian courtship thing?

It was possible. It wasn't even that strange a possibility to consider. The two of them had been carefully circling one another in that way for some time, testing the waters, figuring things out. They'd been making some pretty good progress, Tony had thought, all things considered. They got along well enough, there was _clear_ interest in taking things further should they get over the first of the growing pains, but there hadn't been any clear structure to their… whatever it was they were doing. Tony had considered that something of a relief, not having to plot and plan around dates, figuring out the cultural differences between them and the unique pitfalls he would inevitably fall into.

But maybe that had been a bit presumptuous on his part. Asgard had seemed like a pretty well ordered place, big on tradition and castes, and Loki was a _Prince_ , so he would have been caught and raised right in the thick of all of that. Maybe this _laissez-faire_ attitude was causing Loki more problems than he was letting on.

He thought about asking Thor about it, to see what sort of advice he could get from the big guy. He would know about courtship traditions, and about his brother in particular.

Tony considered it. For about thirty seconds. Then he threw out the idea and decided that he would figure it out on his own.

He'd rather risk putting his foot in his mouth a dozen times, complete with Iron Man boot, than go to Thor and ask how to go about courting his brother.

He was clever, he'd figure it out.

Until then he'd just… add the box to the collection.

—•—

It really was an odd collection at this point, without much in the way of rhyme or reason that Tony could see. There were odds and ends, such as the box, including but not limited to a small bag of polished stones, a miniature statue depicting some sort of animal, a pair a leather arm braces, a small painting whose picture shifted and changed subtly throughout the day, an incredibly sharp knife… There was a small collection of books, as well, including an atlas showing countries Tony had never seen before, a history book whose spine creaked with age, a book of children's stories, and one which showed several languages Tony didn't understand – and what he did _technically_ understand, didn't make any sense.

He’d cracked with that one, and gone to Thor to ask about it, though without divulging _where_ he had gotten the book. According to him, it was a magic book - but magic in the sense that that was how it _functioned_ , not what it taught. What it taught was languages. Languages which had never been heard on Earth.

Loki had given him an interstellar Rosetta Stone.

And none of this was counting the gifts which Tony no longer had in his dragon's hoard. Things which he couldn't keep indefinitely, like food.

Some of those had been truly bizarre. If he thought food from other _countries_ was something of a culture shock, then being given something from the other side of the galaxy was a damned culture trauma.

Still tasted good, though, and nothing had killed him yet.

And none of it made sense. Not individually or in context with each other, nothing seemed to really _mean_ anything or to imply any deeper meaning. Which just left the ‘explanation’ Loki chose to give with each gift:

Just because.

There was plenty Tony had learned about Loki since he'd become a part of the team. One of those was that he never did anything ‘just because.’

—•—

“I see we’re caught in the creative muse once again.”

Tony looked up from his work. He had to take his goggles off in order to see who it was who had walked into his workshop, but he didn’t really _need_ to see who it was. He recognized the voice.

Loki stood just inside the doorway to the shop, looking around the surfaces littered with bits and pieces of Tony’s latest creation. There were a lot of pieces and very little surface left to hold it all. Tony took a good look for the first time in what must have been… much longer than he thought it had been, given just how deeply he was buried in it all. It wasn’t that he was slipshod while he was working, it was just that he would lose track of time and set things aside without putting them _away_ when he was comfortably in the flow of things.

Apparently that had happened without his noticing, as he was at one of the furthest tables from the door where Loki had come in, and there wasn’t a clear surface to be seen between them.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Tony said, and leaned back in his chair. Several vertebrae gave loud snaps at the motion, and it felt as though he were unbending from a position he’d been holding for several hours, at least. Just how into the ‘creative muse’ had he gotten this time? It had been a while since he’d lost track of time this completely. “You know how fickle inspiration can be. Gotta grab it while you can.”

“Mmm…” Loki walked in, still looking around at the scattered bits of Tony’s work. He was one of the few people who really dared to come in without hesitation. Certainly he was one of the few who seemed really comfortable in Tony’s space. The whole team had been in at least once, but most left the shop alone. Those who _would_ come in usually left again as soon as they’d had their word with Tony, or whatever it was they wanted. Only Loki, Bruce, Pepper and Rhodey really seemed to be comfortable being in the shop.

Which was fine with Tony. He appreciated having some place where he was guaranteed at least a small measure of privacy.

Loki picked up something from the clutter on the tables. Tony was about to object on principle, when he saw that it was just one of his coffee cups.

“Not able to sleep, Anthony?”

Tony blinked, frowning. “I suppose not, no. Got to thinking about designs, brain wouldn’t quiet back down again until I came down here to work on them for a while.”

“Hmm.” Loki was still walking between the tables, picking up cups as he went. He had four in one hand, now, holding them by their handles, a small bouquet of the things. And his other hand was still finding more to add.

By the time he made it over to Tony and set the cups down in front of him, he had a total of twelve, those he hadn’t been able to hold in his hands floating around him with magic. They both stared at the gathered cups, all of them stained with coffee. Tony was perhaps a little too proud of himself that it wasn’t a bunch of glasses smelling of whiskey which Loki had found and deposited in front of him like an accusation.

“Not _able_ to sleep,” Loki asked quietly, “or not _willing_ to?”

Tony sighed, and put down his tools, rubbing at his face. “Fine, yes, you caught me. Not _willing_ to try and sleep, okay? At least not until I’ve exhausted myself to the point where—“

He stopped. There was no reason to, since Loki already knew _why_ it was that Tony avoided sleep as much as he did. He knew about the nightmares Tony went through from time to time, had even been lucky enough to be there when he came flailing up from them one time. They’d been watching movies together on the couch, and Tony had fallen asleep. Either he had been doing worse mentally than he’d thought, or the sounds coming from the television had seeped in and messed up his dreams, because when he woke up it had been one of his more violent ‘wake ups’ in some time.

Later, Loki told him that he had been conscious, but not aware of his surroundings for a good five minutes. In that time, he had attempted to fight Loki, who had still been on the couch next to him, had gone into a defensive crouch, and had spoken to people who weren’t there. Tony didn’t ask for details, didn’t want to know just how much of a fool he’d made of himself. If he didn’t ask, then he could just pretend he couldn’t feel how damp his cheeks had been when he came back to himself.

And yet, despite Loki knowing all about it, he still couldn’t admit to it – that he still had nightmares. Nightmares about… all sorts of things, now, which chased him out of sleep and kept him from attempting to return to it.

Loki didn’t push, apparently understanding well enough without having to actually hear the words. “I have offered before, Anthony, to assist you with your sleep. That offer remains; you need only say the word.”

Tony shook his head. “Thanks, Lokes, but no. No offence, but I’d rather not have anyone rooting around inside my head, yeah?”

For a moment it looked as though Loki were about to object, to argue his case for helping Tony to sleep and still avoid the nightmares. But he restrained himself, and nodded tightly.

He was glad he didn’t have to argue the point. He’d had one person go deep diving into his subconscious once, and he had no desire whatsoever to repeat the experience. He knew, objectively, that what Loki was offering was not the same thing as what Wanda had done when _she_ had gone poking around inside his skull. She’d gone looking for his fears, yes, but she had done it with the goal of bringing them forward, of making him live through them in full, living color. Loki was offering to do the opposite – to bury them nice and deep, covering them over again with things that _didn’t_ keep him up for days at a time.

But he still didn’t want Loki going in there. It was like… like breaking a bone. It didn’t matter who it was or what their intentions were, you didn’t want someone messing with it, because no matter what the intended effect, it was _going to hurt._

Loki dropped the subject, made the cups disappear with a wave of his hand, and stayed with Tony in the shop until he was ready to attempt giving sleep another try. Thankfully it wasn’t very long. Once his attention was brought back to the fact that, yes, he _did_ have a body, he realized just how tired he was. He decided that however long he had stayed up, hyper-focused on his work as a means of finding an escape, it had been long enough to maybe leave the nightmares behind.

He got his sleep, and on waking found another not-gift awaiting him on his pillow beside his face. It was a black coffee mug, printed with the words, “I RUN ENTIRELY ON CAFFEINE, SARCASM, & INAPPROPRIATE THOUGHTS.”

Tony smiled. This gift at least was easy enough to figure out, without anything in the way of possibly hidden meanings to confound him.

The simplicity of the gift was probably what helped the rest click into place.

The significance of the gifts wasn’t in _what_ they were or how they might all be taken together to mean something much bigger than they were individually.

The importance lay in the _timing_.

—•—

He stopped hoarding all of the gifts he’d been given in one place, and started spreading them around the penthouse, finding places for them until it was almost impossible to look in any direction without spotting one. It was nice, actually, once everything had found a place, to be surrounded by the things which Loki had given to him. Little reminders of him wherever he looked, reminders that he cared…

It made Tony feel pleasantly warm, running his eye over all of the objects, the little shows of affection.

Seeing them spread around the penthouse had its effect on Loki, as well, when he noticed. And he noticed almost immediately. Tony was actually watching specifically to see if he would react to seeing the gifts in their new places of honor, visible to any and all who came to the penthouse.

Loki actually used the door, which was something of a relief. It had taken some time for him to break out of the habit of simply _appearing_ places. “Good morning, Anthony. Had you anything planned-?” He made it about half a dozen steps before he stopped, going silent.

Tony watched him as he turned his head, looking around at all of the things which he had given to Tony over the course of… it must have been months, Tony realized. Months of being given these little gifts, never with any real explanation for _why_. No explanation, because Loki was just as reluctant to speak about the whys as Tony was to speak about…

Loki didn’t say anything for a full few minutes. He just took in the room, picking out each of the things which he had given to Tony, doubtless checking each off of a mental list he had of every single item he had given to him up to that point. Every time he found one, a smile flickered over his face. By the time he’d turned back to Tony, he’d gotten his expression under control, his face a little closer to neutral, but there was no hiding the way his eyes had brightened.

Tony felt a little of the tension run out of him, reassured. At the same time, his heart began to pick up its pace. No backing out of this now, he supposed.

“What’s all this, then?”

Tony smiled at him, and put down the tablet he’d been working on. “You know, when I kept asking _you_ that question, you kept brushing me off. A little bit cheeky to ask _me_ what all of this is meant to mean now, isn’t it?”

Loki snorted, and looked away, apparently more interested in rechecking the room to be certain that he hadn’t missed anything on his initial scan.

Tony stood up, forcing his legs to cooperate, and started to close the distance between them. “Though, now that you ask… I think I might finally be able to give you an answer to that. Even though you never gave me so much as a hint, I might point out. Rude.”

“Are you upset that I didn’t confide in you Anthony, or that you have had to figure out the riddle for yourself?”

“Neither, really,” he said easily. “I can see where trying to explain it would be awkward, and it would just be easier to give the gifts and run. Honestly, I’ve done plenty of things like that myself, so I get it. Actually, I should have picked up on it a lot earlier than I did, considering that. I guess it just didn’t really occur to me that _you_ might do the same thing. Teach me for thinking that you’re all that different from the rest of us, no matter how much you might like to pretend differently…”

He was jabbering. That wasn’t really a good sign, but it filled the silence, at least. And it covered the time it took him to go from the couch he’d been sitting at to get to Loki’s side. Once he was there, his stream of consciousness babbling trailing away, Loki finally turned to him, the pretense of looking around the penthouse inadequate with Tony at his elbow.

He must have known what Tony was driving at. He was too smart to _not_ know what Tony was trying to lead up to, and his face as much as said that he was simply waiting for Tony to either get around to actually saying what he wanted to say or to back off entirely. “And what is it, exactly, that you believe I have been attempting to achieve this whole time?” he asked, voice lowered in both volume and tone.

Tony swallowed, and then plowed ahead. _No backing out_ , he reminded himself.

“I thought it might be a few different things, really,” he said. “A test, a courtship ritual, a game, just being a nuisance by trying to make me think there was some deeper meaning when there really wasn’t… That theory lasted the longest, I’ll have you know. Seemed a very ‘you’ sort of thing to do. But none of them really fit, and I was stumped. I was about ready to give up on trying to figure it out, and not give it any more thought. Until I realized that… you always gave me something when there was any sign that I was having my nightmares.”

He paused, watching for any reaction. The only one he could see was that the mage had gone incredibly still. His reaction was to give absolutely none at all.

“Any time I was particularly stressed out,” he went on, “or looked like I hadn’t gotten sleep, or was pulling all-nighters, or… anything, really, which might indicate that I was having rough nights, there you would be with some knick-knack or other. Like get-well-soon presents.” He looked around the room, scanning over all of the things which had come from Loki. Little pieces of him, in a way, all floating around in Tony’s living space. It was nice, he decided. They fit in, they belonged. And they _did_ make him feel better.

“A fairly simple conclusion,” Loki commented, his voice still low. “One wonders how it could have taken you so long to arrive at it.”

Tony raised a brow. “Yes, well. You weren’t exactly helpful on this front. Plus, it’s probably a good idea to be cautious when interpreting the motivations of someone who is from a completely different culture. Especially when said culture is much, much older than your own. _And_ ,” he added, “I don’t think that was your _entire_ motivation.”

“No?” Loki was going tense, watching Tony closely.

“No.” He tilted his head, keeping his body language as open and calm as possible. “I think that you were giving the gifts to make _yourself_ feel better as much as me. Because you feel responsible for the nightmares?”

Loki winced, and finally glanced away. “It… it’s hardly something which can be denied, or swept away by the simple giving of _objects_. But you will not have me touch your mind – and I understand why you would not want me to,” he added quickly. “No one would wish to have me in their mind, it’s only good sense. But I wanted to do _something_ , to show in some way that I regret what I’ve done to you and show that I would never—“

“ _Loki_.”

Tony took one of Loki’s hands, and he stopped immediately. He stared down at their hands, eyes gone wide. When he looked back up, meeting Tony’s eye, Tony smiled at him with as much reassurance and affection as he could, hoping that at least a little of what he was feeling was coming across. It might give him a warning of what was coming.

He took a breath, went up on his toes, and pressed his lips to Loki’s.

Loki froze, but didn’t pull away.

Tony was the one to pull away, before Loki could gather himself enough to respond, one way or another. He smiled at Loki’s shocked expression.

“You’re not the one who gives me the nightmares,” he said, giving his hand a squeeze. “I love you, Lokes. You’re the only gift that I need to chase the nightmares away.”

The look on Loki’s face was one of such stunned disbelief that Tony actually chuckled a little before he tugged at the mage’s front, encouraging him to bend down and meet him.

Loki complied, his face breaking into a smile, and joined him in a much more responsive kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Full credit for the line, "I love you, and you're the only gift I need to chase the nightmares away," goes to STARSdidathing! ♥
> 
> \---
> 
> Thanks for reading, everyone!
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


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